Editorial | Justice for youths

Kentucky got some welcome news this month when it comes to humane treatment of children who need compassion and help instead of a jail sentence.

Goaded by advocacy groups, many judges and most juvenile corrections officials, judges have significantly cut the numbers of youths they send to jail for minor "status offenses" - behavior that would not be an offense for an adult -such as missing school or running away from home.

Kentucky Youth Advocates has been at the forefront of the effort to educate lawmakers and public and deserves much credit for tracking statistics and presenting a compelling case for Kentucky's need to change its dismal performance.

In recent years, Kentucky has been one of the top states in the nation for jailing such youths, despite federal laws that discourage the practice. The Courier-Journal reported in 2011 that Kentucky had the second highest-rate in the nation among states for using jail as punishment for such youths.

Last year, the state sent 1,090 youths to juvenile detention centers compared to 2,270 six years ago and many counties with high rates of jailing status offenders have cut the numbers at least in half.

That's true for Kenton County, which in 2010 had the state's highest number of such youths, with 213 sent to detention. Last year, through new efforts to find better ways to deal with such youths, it cut the number to 101.

And that's still not good enough for Kenton Family Court Judge Christopher Mehling.

"I won't be happy till that number is zero," he said.

Other communities, such as Henderson County in Western Kentucky, have made impressive gains in reducing those numbers, Henderson County through a pilot project aimed at identifying causes of such behavior and helping youths in need.

In Jefferson County judges have long had a policy not sending status offenders to jail, though a handful each year wind up in detention, usually though unique circumstances, such as a lack of shelter beds.

Officials who oppose sending status offenders to jail include the jailers, some of whom have told lawmakers such children have no business in detention centers with youths charged with far more serious offenses, such as robbery, murder and assault.

Typically, youths run away or become truant because of emotional problems, abuse, neglect, bullying, homelessness or other social ills. Treating a status offense as criminal behavior does nothing to solve the problem -and nothing to help youths who may be in desperate need of help from a caring adult.

But if that's not reason enough for some officials who believe jail serves as a "wake up call," they need to consider the bottom line. Jailing youths is expensive -about $2 million a year compared to much cheaper options such as supervision at home.

The decline in jailing status offenders is impressive but local communities, judges and school officials need to work even harder to identify and resolve problems - such as multiple absences from school.

Too often, truancy is merely a symptom of terrible things going on in a young person's life.

And truancy is particularly problematic throughout Kentucky, where students may rack up 30, 40 or 50 or more absences before they wind up in court charged with truancy. Truancy costs the school system money in state aid, it costs students who fall behind in classes and it costs the state when it comes to graduating young adults prepared for college or jobs.

More pressure lies ahead by the fall of 2017 when the age at which students can drop out of school changes from 16 to 18, under a recent change in state law.

Every school system in Kentucky must be ready to figure how to keep students in school. We already know jailing them isn't the answer.

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Editorial | Justice for youths

Kentucky got some welcome news this month when it comes to humane treatment of children who need compassion and help instead of a jail sentence.